For many people the idea of swapping to an electric vehicle, be it a plug-in hybrid or a battery electric vehicle, still feels unattainable, but there has been an explosion of electric vehicles on our roads, with 2021 showing an incredible 70% growth on 2020.
Registrations of electric vehicles continues to rise, with more than 30 thousand being registered in June 2022, a 21.6% share of the market, which is quite incredible seeing as back in 2019 the market share was just 3.2%. (Figures taken from zap-map.com)
Many households are now in possession of 2 or more electric vehicles which has led to us frequently getting asked how many chargers should be installed, is one enough? Of course, the simple answer is that it depends on your own situation, but in the majority of cases one charger at home should suffice.
A common misconception is that an electric vehicle will need to be charged every night. However, the average range of an EV on a single full charge now sits at over 190 miles, according to the RAC a person’s average daily mileage is about 28 miles per day, so given these figures the reality is that even if you did want the security of fully charging every night, an hour’s charge on a 7kW home charger would top your battery back up to full range. So, if your situation is similar to this, there is no reason why a single charge point could not be shared between the cars. Either charging each for an hour each night or topping one vehicle up one night and topping the other the next night and so on.
Of course, there may well be times when both vehicles will be needed to do a long journey at the same time, but there are ways around this, such as one vehicle using a public charger enroute, and factoring the rapid charge time in to your journey.
Undoubtedly there are benefits to having a charge point for each vehicle, but be careful on the chargers you select. Your property will only have one power supply that will be split between the charge points, so ideally you would want chargers that have the ability to ‘load share’ to split the power equally between which ever vehicles are plugged in, so the more chargers you have in operation the longer the charge time would be.
Another option could be to install a rapid 22kW charger at your home, whilst this would still mean charging one car at a time, the extra charging speed and power provided would give more flexibility when it comes to charging. But and it is a big but, most UK homes are not set up to have a 22kW charger, as a property would require a three-phase electricity supply and the majority of UK homes operate on a single-phase supply. It is possible to upgrade a property to a three- phase supply, however this is a significant investment, which is why, the vast majority of domestic EV Charge Points installed are 7kW chargers; the highest-powered charger you can get on a single-phase supply.
It is also worth noting that electric vehicles have differing limits on the charging speed they will accept. For example, a Tesla Model 3 has the capability to charge at a maximum of 11kW AC, whilst the Nissan Leaf as standard is 3.6kW AC, no matter what size charger you plug them in to. Each car is different, so before selecting you charger, check your vehicle – in the vast majority of domestic cases at 7kW home charger is more than sufficient.
For more information or with help selecting the right EV charger (s) for installation please do get in touch with us on 01905 700 490 or email info@blackpearev.co.uk